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DRAFT SPEECH BY HON STEPHEN CHEONG, OBE, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 26.6.85
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Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Bill 1985
Third Reading
Sir,
I wish to speak on two topics, mainly on Clause 14 (2)
and briefly on the dilemma expressed by the Unofficials in this
episode of the Powers and Privileges Bill. One columnist has
postulated that Clause 14 (2) would provide the Governor with the power to prevent LegCo from involving itself in a wide
range of matters, and went on to conclude that "The
Sino-British Joint Declaration, after all, was silent on the
precise future relationship between the China-appointed
executive and the elected legislature. Clause 14 (2) could be
used to usher in complete subordination of the legislature to
the executive, and to ensure that Hongkong's de facto system of
bureaucratic authoritarianism extends itself indefinitely."
Both the Bar Association Chairman and the President of
the Law Society, in their last minute joint statement to the
press advocated that this clause should not be passed in its
present form and should preferably be dropped altogether.
We members of the Ad Hoc Group have examined with
great care the arguements giving rise to this call from the
leaders of the legal fraternity to drop this clause.
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